Implications of salivary protein binding to commensal and pathogenic bacteria

An important function of salivary proteins is to interact with microorganisms that enter the oral cavity. For some microbes, these interactions promote microbial colonization. For others, these interactions are deleterious and result in the elimination of the microbe from the mouth, This paper reviews recent studies of the interaction of salivary proteins with two model bacteria; the commensal species Streptococcus gordonii, and the facultative pathogen Staphylococcus aureus. These organisms selectively interact with a variety of salivary proteins to influence important functions such as bacterial adhesion to surfaces, evasion of host defense, bacterial nutrition and metabolism and gene expression.